Turin, GAM hosts the World Press Photo Exhibition 2022

For the sixth consecutive year, from April 29 to September 18, Turin is hosting the World Press Photo Exhibition, now in its 66th edition and staged in the spaces of GAM - Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea. Set up in 70 venues in 30 countries, the exhibition presents 134 shots chosen from 64,823 candidates, including photographs and open formats, taken by 4,066 photographers from 130 countries around the world: these are works signed for major international newspapers, such as National Geographic, BBC, CNN, Times, Le Monde, El Pais.Reporters compete for the title in the different categories of the photojournalism competition that was born in 1955, when a group of Dutch photographers organized the first international World Press Photo competition, which has become the world’s most prestigious photo contest today.

The selection

The work to evaluate the shots began on January 17 and ended on March 2, 2022. To provide geographic balance and increase the level of international representation, this year for the first time the World Press Photo Foundation launched a new judging strategy, changing the competition’s approach and working with a system that allows for a broad look at all regions of the world-Africa, Asia, Europe, North and Central America, South America, Southeast Asia, and Oceania. The selection process involved first “regional” juries composed of professionals from that area and finally a “global” jury, between online and offline convenings. This allowed space and voice to be given to photographers from all areas of the world, and to tell new stories, perhaps not as well known to the general public but equally important. Once the regional juries had made their selections, the global jury, composed this year of Ernesto Benavides, Simona Ghizzoni, Tanzim Wahab, N’Goné Fall, Rena Effendi, Clare Vander Meersch, and Jessica Lim, proclaimed the 24 regional winners, who thus came from as many as 23 countries: Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Japan, Madagascar, Mexico, Nigeria, the Netherlands, Norway, Palestine, Russia, Sudan and Thailand. Finally, the four global winners were chosen from the 24 regional winners: namely World Press Photo of the Year, World Press Photo Story of the Year, the World Press Photo Long-Term Project Award and the World Press Photo Open Format Award.

The winners

World Press Photo of the year was awarded to the shot taken at Kamloops Residential School by Canadian photographer Amber Bracken for the New York Times. Red robes hang from crosses along a road: they commemorate the children who died at the Kamloops Indian Residential School, an institution created for indigenous children. At that site, some 215 graves have been discovered.

The World Press Photo Story of the Year award went to Saving Forests with Fire by Matthew Abbott of Australia, a work produced for National Geographic/Panos Pictures. At the center of the story is a ritual by indigenous Australians who strategically burn the land in a practice known as “cold burning”: the fires move slowly, burning only the underbrush and removing the accumulation of plant debris that can fuel larger fires. The Nawarddeken people of West Arnhem Land, Australia, have been implementing this practice for tens of thousands of years and see fire as a tool to manage their 1.39 million hectare homeland. Warddeken rangers combine traditional knowledge with contemporary technologies to prevent fires, thereby decreasing CO2 for global warming.

Winner of the World Press Photo long-term projectaward, meanwhile, Amazonian Dystopia by Lalo de Almeida, Brazil, for Folha de São Paulo/Panos Pictures. It shows how the Amazon rainforest is severely threatened by deforestation, mining, infrastructure development and the exploitation of other natural resources. Also weighing heavily are “ungreen” policies of President Jair Bolsonaro.

Blood is a Seed by Isadora Romero, Ecuador won the video section World Press Photo open format award. Through personal stories, this work questions the disappearance of seeds, forced migration, colonization and the resulting loss of ancestral knowledge. The video consists of digital and film photographs, some of which were taken on expired 35mm film and later drawn by Romero’s father. On a trip to their ancestral village of Une, Cundinamarca, Colombia, Romero explores forgotten memories of the land and crops and learns that his grandfather and great-grandmother were “seed keepers” and grew several varieties of potatoes, only two of which can still be found.

The exhibition in Turin will display, exceptionally, honorable mentions from the World Photo Contest 2022.

The statements

“This year’s World Press Photo,” explains Global Jury Chair Rena Effendi in highlighting the shift in perspective that has animated the contest. “moves propelled by a new regional format, which allows and ensures the representation of diverse storytellers from around the world.”

“In Turin we have reached the sixth edition,” says Vito Cramarossa, director of Cime, “overcoming the many difficulties of these last few years due to the pandemic, achieving important results and great consideration by the people of Turin who rewarded the exhibition last year making it the most visited exhibition of 2021 in Turin city and the 17th in Italy. As always, we thank the City of Turin and, in particular, the Fondazione Torino Musei, which is hosting us this year at GAM, that is, in one of the most prestigious modern and contemporary art galleries in Italy. The hope is that the exhibition will once again excite Turin and stimulate, as always, visitors by allowing them to learn about many stories by comparing what is happening in the world.”

“After the success of the two previous editions at Palazzo Madama, GAM has decided to host this new edition of World Press Photo,” says Riccardo Passoni, Director of GAM, “In fact, our museum has always maintained a specific focus on photography, witnessed throughout its history as well as through recent exhibitions. And especially through acquisitions of photographic artists, present in substantial numbers in the collections. This exhibition has different characteristics, but precisely for this reason it was worth thinking of it within our walls, with the aim of also attracting a new audience, especially attentive to the themes of memory and nature, as will be perceived in this edition.”

Turin, GAM hosts the World Press Photo Exhibition 2022

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